The All Progressives Congress (APC) has officially reacted to the allegations and counter-allegations bordering on the padding of the 2016 Budget in the House of Representatives, telling the two feuding parties to make no further public comments on the matter.
The party also said it found it embarrassing to have to deal with another “new phenomenon” tagged ‘budget padding’ by the lawmakers.
According to news emanating from the party’s national headquarters in Abuja yesterday which separately addressed the main actors at the centre of the budget crisis, Speaker Yakubu Dogara and Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, the party also said that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government and the ruling APC were saddened by the recent developments in the Green Chamber of the National Assembly.
Findings confirmed that both letters written by the APC deputy national chairman (North), Senator Lawal Shuaibu, dated August 4, had been delivered to the duo of Dogara and Jibrin at the time of filing this report.
According to the letters, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party said that having held series of meetings with Dogara and Jibrin over the budget padding scandal, it had decided that both of them be requested to henceforth avoid issuing any public statements on the matter, through the social media or otherwise.
The party added that the decision became necessary as it is “now looking into it (the crisis) towards finding possible solution.”
APC however appreciated both lawmakers for their cooperation in honouring the party’s intervention and their readiness to afford it the chance to handle the budget padding crisis in the House.
The House of Representatives has been enmeshed in the budget padding scandal since Thursday, July 21, 2016 when Hon. Jibrin, the erstwhile chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, was relieved of his chairmanship position.
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